Loomis Chaffee Coach Induted Into Hall of Fame

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Loomis Chaffee head boys lacrosse coach and Windsor resident Ted Garber was inducted into the Connecticut Lacrosse Hall of Fame in a ceremony at the Aqua Turf in Southington, Conn. on Sunday, November 11. The ceremony highlighted Garber's numerous coaching and teaching accomplishments. Said Rob Hoynes, a director of Connecticut Lacrosse, "Ted is one of the few lacrosse coaches in the history of the game to excel as a head coach at the secondary, collegiate, and professional levels, and has been recognized by US Lacrosse for 200 career wins, and still counting."

Garber's life lessons in the game of lacrosse have touched countless high school, collegiate, and professional athletes and coaches. As an undergraduate at University of New Hampshire, Garber won the Barr Whoop Snively student athlete award for academic and athletic excellence and sportsmanship. He went on to coach at UNH where he was a University of New Hampshire Hall of Fame inductee as one of UNH's all-time most successful lacrosse coaches. He then coached at UMass where he compiled the highest head coach winning percentage in the lacrosse program's history before moving to the fields of Connecticut prep schools. He was the athletic director and head lacrosse coach at Avon Old Farms before taking over the Loomis Chaffee lacrosse program in 2007 from James "Grim" Wilson, who had been with the Loomis program since its inception.

The Hall of Fame ceremony included some of the highlights of Garber's 18 years as a Connecticut prep school lacrosse coach, where his teams have won numerous Founders League and Western New England championships. The Connecticut Lacrosse Hall of Fame citation noted, "Ted has been named both the New England Prep School Coach of the Year and the New England Prep School Man of the Year." Garber has also been honored as both the New England Division I Collegiate Coach of the Year and the winner of the New England Collegiate Coach Sportsmanship Award.

Garber also has a strong connection to Major League Lacrosse (MLL), and his support at the professional level dates back to the creation of the league, where he was selected as the first head coach during the 2000 Summer Showcase Tour. He is the longest-tenured coach in MLL history, having worked in Bridgeport, Chicago, Boston, Rochester, and Ohio, where he presently is the head coach of the expansion Ohio Machine.

Garber's influence in the sport of lacrosse has reached players from the youth camp and club level to the pros as he has coached a multitude of All-New England, All-American, and All-Pro players, many of whom were on hand Sunday night to see their former coach receive his honor.